Daily Archives: August 12, 2019

Today’s Takeaway

Billionaire Jim Pattison makes bid to take Canfor private

August 12, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

Just a reminder – the Frogs are taking a few days off this week and will return on Friday with a full compliment of news. Below on Monday’s headlines.

Canfor Corporation issued a cautionary note after BC billionaire Jim Pattison made a cash offer—approaching double the current stock price—to take the company private. In other Business news: Skeena Sawmills struggles as BC increases log exports; Clearwater’s mayor speaks out on Vavenby mill closure; BC’s new Forest Secretary to visit hard-it mill towns; Kalesnikoff Lumber weathering the storm better than some; and Vaughn Palmer is accused of milking the caribou mountain theme. 

In other news: the Longhorn beetle is squashed Alberta; the Spotted Owl population declines in Oregon; and elk avoid cougars and hunters in Montana.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

Read More

Business & Politics

Vaughn Palmer and his mountain caribou dairy

By Andru McCracken
Rocky Mountain Goat
August 10, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

It is a frustrating time to be a bystander in a provincial conversation about forestry, jobs and caribou. Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer has written his tenth column about a provincial effort to save the endangered mountain caribou while weaving in the woes of the forest industry.  Palmer has been milking the mountain caribou consultation theme for a long time now. But Palmer’s columns are doing a disservice to the province and to the forest industry (though not the mill owners). Oh and he is also endorsing racism and emboldening racists, selling out the prospect of employment for present and future blue collar forestry workers and condemning the mountain caribou to an early death. Blue collar jobs are being lost and many more are in imminent danger in the interior.

Read More

Sawmill struggles as NDP boosts northwest log exports

By Tom Fletcher
Parksville Qualicum Beach News
August 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

If there’s a bright spot in the struggling B.C. forest industry, it’s Skeena Sawmills. Since new investors took over the 59-year-old operation from West Fraser in 2011, they have poured millions into restarting and upgrading Terrace’s only sawmill, fixing old buildings and retooling to handle smaller second-growth timber from the economically marginal forest stands that are left in the region. They’ve invested more millions into building a pellet plant for biofuel exports. They’re working with the industry-federal agency FPInnovations to use log scanning technology that helps mills detect flaws inside logs to get a viable lumber product out of otherwise uneconomic timber. They’ve endured shutdowns due to log shortages, high costs and union demands. And now they face a new threat – drastically increased log exports in the North Coast region that siphon off even more of the scarce high-grade timber.

Read More

West Kootenay mills weathering perfect storm in industry

By John Boivin
Trail Times
August 9, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Krystle Seed and Chris Kalesnikoff

West Kootenay’s lumber mills seem to be weathering the economic downturn in the industry a little better than their peers in other parts of the province. While no one’s exactly booming, company officials say they are managing to survive at a time of mill closures, cutbacks, and loss of markets elsewhere. “We are just plugging along, one day at a time,” says Dan Wiebe of Box Lake Lumber, a mill near Nakusp. “You can’t do a whole lot about it.” …The most aggressive company pushing its way through these tough times is Tarrys-based Kalesnikoff Lumber. “Times are tough, but you never want to strike fear into anything,” says Chris Kalesnikoff, chief operating officer. “We have not only survived 80 years, but we have been successful for 8o years.”

Read More

New forests secretary will visit hard-hit mill towns

By Nick Eagland
The Prince George Citizen
August 9, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Rav Hahlon

B.C.’s new parliamentary secretary for forests says he is up to the challenge of helping repair a devastated industry. Ravi Kahlon, MLA for North Delta, was appointed to the position late last month. He joins Forests Minister Doug Donaldson and his deputy minister, John Allan, as they work to support the sector through layoffs, mill closures and curtailments. …Next week, he will begin travelling to affected communities to learn what challenges they face and unique solutions they seek. The ministry has been meeting with workers to assess their needs and with forestry companies to discuss responsibilities such as supporting workers close to retirement and finding new jobs for others, Kahlon said. Kahlon joins a team which includes Larry Pedersen, B.C.’s chief forester from 1994 to 2004, who the province has contracted to evaluate the affect of mill closures and provide advice regarding tenure sales that may arise under Bill 22.

Read More

District of Clearwater meets with government and forestry officials

BC Local News
August 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The District of Clearwater has been busy working on various issues resulting from the closure of Canfor’s Vavenby mill, meeting with government and forest industry officials in an attempt to soften the blow rippling through the community. Mayor Merlin Blackwell met with Forest Minister Doug Donaldson, trying to find new employment opportunities for some of those who were laid off. …Council also met with the chair of the Community Forest Corporation to feel out its goals for a potential tenure increase as part of the Bill 22 agreement. …He added Interfor would still get the wood cut from the theoretical Community Forest tenure expansion, but would have to pay a different price. …There’s also a fear that Canfor and Interfor could come to an agreement without doing a sale, effectively bypassing Bill 22’s stipulation of community best interest.

Read More

Sawmill struggles as NDP boosts northwest log exports

By Tom Fletcher
BC Local News
August 10, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

If there’s a bright spot in the struggling BC forest industry, it’s Skeena Sawmills. Since new investors took over the 59-year-old operation from West Fraser in 2011, they have poured millions into restarting and upgrading Terrace’s only sawmill. …And now they face a new threat – drastically increased log exports in the North Coast region that siphon off even more of the scarce high-grade timber. That’s right, despite Premier John Horgan’s endless rant against exporting “raw logs” and jobs, despite mill shutdowns across the province due to jacked-up stumpage taxes on the coast and falling timber supply in the Interior, the export limit has been doubled in the Northwest Interior region. …Skeena president Roger Keery [wrote Minister Donaldson]… more than half of the Northwest’s actual log harvest was exported before the NDP government raised the limit from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. …In response to my questions, the ministry issued a statement that quibbled with its numbers.

Read More

Jim Pattison tables $981.7-million bid to take Canfor private

By Brent Jang
The Globe and Mail
August 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jim Pattison

B.C. billionaire Jim Pattison plans to take forestry firm Canfor private with a $981.7-million cash offer that comes during an industry slump. Great Pacific Capital is offering $16 a share for Vancouver-based Canfor’s stock that it doesn’t already own, or 82 per cent higher than the close of $8.80 on Friday. “The elimination of the significant administrative expenses incurred in maintaining a public company listing in Canada will allow for reinvestment of these funds into stabilization of the company’s operations… Canfor is facing strategic and capital decisions that are “best suited to a private company with a long-term focus.” …The 90-year-old Mr. Pattison has a reputation for his long-term investing strategy, sticking with companies through industry downturns. Mr. Pattison also owns more than 10 per cent of Canada’s largest lumber producer, West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. Two years ago, his lumber interests raised speculation about a potential merger between Canfor and West Fraser.

Read More

Canfor responds to Great Pacific Capital Corp.’s announcement of its unsolicited proposal to take Canfor private

Canfor Corporation
Cision Newswire
August 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

VANCOUVER – Canfor confirms that, on August 10, 2019, it received an unsolicited and non-binding proposal from Great Pacific Capital pursuant to which Great Pacific has suggested that it would be willing to acquire all outstanding common shares of Canfor at a price of $16.00 per common share. Canfor cautions its shareholders and potential investors that the Indicative Offer is non-binding on Great Pacific and there can be no certainty that the Indicative Offer or any other strategic transaction with Great Pacific or any other person will be pursued by Canfor, supported by Canfor’s board of directors or ultimately completed. …The Board has constituted a special committee of independent directors to review the Offer and… Canfor’s response, if any.

Read More

Parent company of Longview mill announces another large quarterly loss

By Mallory Gruben
The Longview Daily News
August 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Interfor, a Canadian company that owns a large sawmill on Third Avenue in Longview, reported another big loss in its second quarter, following industry struggles caused by low lumber prices. The company reported a second quarter net loss of $11.2 million. That’s on top of first-quarter loss of $15.3 million. “From a lumber market point of view, July continued to be very challenging with downward price pressure in June,” Bart Bender, senior vice president of sales and marketing. …“We had extremely high prices in 2018. Fast forward a year, and we have quite low pricing,” said Director of Corporate Development and Planning Mike Mackay. “The volatility does make operating this challenge at times. It’s something we have to manage through carefully.” Company officials attributed this year’s losses to low lumber prices, likely caused by poor, wet weather conditions at the beginning of the year and a slow housing market. 

Read More

Wood, Paper & Green Building

Innovative Four-Storey Mass Timber Office Building Coming to Toronto

By Natural Resources Canada
Cision Newswire
August 9, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

VAUGHAN, ON – Living in environmentally sustainable communities is important to Canadians. That is why Canada is investing in advanced wood building design and construction that will help create a greener future while growing markets for Canada’s forest sector. The Honourable Judy Sgro, Member of Parliament for Humber River–Black Creek, on behalf of the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, today announced an investment of $2 million over three years to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority for the construction of a four-storey mass timber office building in Toronto. This project will position Canada as a global leader in advanced wood building design and construction while expanding the Canadian wood market into non-traditional, low-rise office buildings. …Funding for this project is provided by Natural Resources Canada’s Green Construction through Wood (GCWood) program.

Read More

Connecting Toronto Area Wood Builders with the Northern Forest

By Forests Ontario
Environmental Communication Options
August 12, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Timmins, ON – On August 15th, a group of Southern Ontario based architects, engineers, and union leaders will join representatives from Forests Ontario, local forestry companies, and northern municipalities on a tour of forestry and mill operations in Timmins, Ontario.  The tour enables individuals from across the wood-construction value chain – from forest management and extraction, to manufacturing, to design and construction – to discuss the sustainable nature of forestry operations in Ontario and wood’s standing as our only renewable building material.  The tour is co-sponsored by Forests Ontario, EACOM Timber Corporation, Rayonier Advanced Materials and Ontario Wood WORKS! as part of the It Takes a Forest awareness initiative. Forest industry representatives and northern community leaders will also be in attendance.

Read More

Forestry

Tolko logging could have ‘catastrophic’ impact on rural Vernon drinking water: report

By Ben Bulmer
InfoTel News
August 10, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

NORTH OKANAGAN – A plan by Tolko Industries to log an area of land close to the drinking water source for rural Vernon could have “catastrophic” consequences says a scientific report. The after-effects from logging so close to the water intake could result in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of economic impac, according to the Regional District of North Okanagan report. The report says Tolko Industries has proposed to clear cut an area of land 500 metres upslope from the Duteau Creek water intake. The water source provides drinking water for 17,000 residents as well as agricultural lands. It also provides backup to the City of Vernon’s water supply supplying a total of 58,000 people when needed. 

Read More

The quick buck still rules in B.C.’s forests

By Ian Laval, former furniture maker
Victoria Times Colonist
August 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

As a puzzled — and disappointed — European furniture maker in British Columbia, I’m staggered that — this late in the game — the question still has to be asked: “What do British Columbians want to do with their magnificent forests?” (Times Colonist, Aug. 1).  My workshop is thankfully busy with a different project these days. But I’m astonished that British Columbians — or their political representatives — continue to allow this wonderful B.C. resource to be shipped abroad for quick cash and have failed to develop added-value uses to keep serious profits for Canadians; to make quality wood products to sell abroad that are recognizably Canadian, for Canadians to be proud of and others to envy. Politicians should spare a moment to look at what other countries have done.

Read More

Williams Lake Indian Band and Tsi Del Del Enterprises forge forestry collaboration

By Monica Lamb-Yorski
BC Local News
August 9, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A new collaboration between the Williams Lake Indian Band and Tsi Del Del Enterprises has both parties excited about the future. The two parties announced Wednesday they will begin working together to create opportunities for utilizing woody biomass immediately by salvaging waste left from logging in areas that were impacted by the 2017 wildfires. WLIB Chief Willie Sellars said the collaboration will create employment and help to reduce the impacts of the recent downturn in the forest industry. “Borland Creek Logging and Tsi Del Del Enterprises will be able to utilize existing equipment and personnel to continue operations. The further spinoff is that we will be able to use this roadside logging debris to generate power at local power plants, and to create value-added products like wood pellets. If we weren’t salvaging this material, it would be left until it could be burned on site.”

Read More

The quick buck still rules in B.C.’s forests

Letter by Ian Laval, furniture maker in Brentwood Bay
Victoria Times Colonist
August 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

As a puzzled — and disappointed — European furniture maker in British Columbia, I’m staggered that — this late in the game — the question still has to be asked: “What do British Columbians want to do with their magnificent forests?” (Times Colonist, Aug. 1). My workshop is thankfully busy with a different project these days. But I’m astonished that British Columbians — or their political representatives — continue to allow this wonderful B.C. resource to be shipped abroad for quick cash and have failed to develop added-value uses to keep serious profits for Canadians; to make quality wood products to sell abroad that are recognizably Canadian, for Canadians to be proud of and others to envy. Politicians should spare a moment to look at what other countries have done. Take Sweden, for instance. Sweden has a land area exactly half that of British Columbia. Its population is on a par with Canada’s.

Read More

Canada Supports Indigenous Participation in Manitoba’s Forest Sector

By Natural Resources Canada
Cision Newswire
August 12, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

BIRCH RIVER, Manitoba  …Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, announced a $50,500 investment in the Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation to enable the community to pursue new business opportunities and provide training to workers. This investment enables the Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation to launch a feasibility study and a business plan for a logging operation and forest development activities. The project is funded by Natural Resources Canada’s Indigenous Forestry Initiative, which supports Indigenous-led economic development opportunities. …Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation is a Swampy Cree First Nations band government whose reserve community is located in northeast Manitoba.

Read More

Tree ravaging Asian longhorn beetle spotted in Edmonton

By Jeff Labine
Edmonton Journal
August 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Edmonton trees have dodged a bullet or rather a beetle. The first confirmed sighting of the Asian longhorned beetle in Edmonton happened in May after being spotted coming out of a pallet of wood in a warehouse, before getting the chance to ravage the city’s trees. The pesky bug has the potential to wreak havoc on elm and ash populations, although maple is its preferred meal. It was fortunate someone spotted the beetle so quickly, Mike Jenkins, a pest co-ordinator with the city said. “This is something we need lots of eyes out there looking for these insects,” he said. “All of the infestations in North America for this beetle, so far, have been found not by people like me … they’ve all been found by other people.” …“Females will usually lay their eggs back on the same tree and keep hitting that tree until it’s dead,” he said. 

Read More

For some N.S. woodlot owners, end of controversial pulp mill not seen as disaster

By Michael Tutton
The Canadian Press in the Toronto Star
August 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Wade Prest

HALIFAX – For wood harvester Wade Prest, predictions of devastation if Nova Scotia’s largest pulp mill closes are missing a wider story of an industry that needs to rethink its future. “There is a time when you do have to bite the bullet and say, ‘This is an opportunity for us to change,’” the 62-year-old wood harvester said in a telephone interview. The deadline is ticking down for the Northern Pulp mill in Pictou County to stop sending effluent into a lagoon near a Mi’kmaq community. If it fails to win approval for a pipeline that would instead dump 85 million litres daily into the Northumberland Strait, the plant could close. However, Prest says that could mean a more “ecological” approach on his family forest near Mooseland, N.S., 115 kilometres east of Halifax.

Read More

Quebec lumberjill fells the competition, takes top honours at national contest

By Spencer Van Dyk
CBC News
August 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Stéphanie Bélanger-Naud

Quebecer Stéphanie Bélanger-Naud was all smiles when she stepped onto the centre podium, was handed her trophy, and showered in sparkling wine after winning this year’s STIHL Timbersports Women’s Pro Canadian Championship. The 24-year-old master’s student is the country’s best female lumberjack — or lumberjill — having chopped and sawed her way to the top at last month’s national championships in Mississauga, Ont. The annual STIHL Timbersports championships bring competitors from across the country test their skills in six intense lumberjack-style skills, from block chops to chainsawing to axe throwing. …Bélanger-Naud started practising wood chopping eight years ago when she started university, and she’s been competing professionally for four years. …The animal sciences student at McGill University plans to take over the family dairy farm in the Eastern Townships after she graduates.

Read More

Book details early North Shore logging industry

By Lindsay Kelly
Northern Ontario Business
August 12, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

John Haegeman spent four decades researching the history behind some of Northern Ontario’s earliest logging camps. Now the 84-year-old Espanola author has compiled his work into a new book. The History and Location of North Shore Logging Camps is a 250-page compendium chronicling Haegeman’s adventures visiting 300 logging camps along the North Shore of Lake Huron, which were operational from the 1880s to the 1940s. …Perhaps, most interestingly, is the inclusion of details about the camps’ stamp hammers, also known as log hammers. …Haegeman said he’s lost count of exactly how many stamp hammers are in his collection, but a conservative estimate puts it at between 200 and 300.

Read More

Ash tree seeds needed for species repopulation efforts, experts say

By Megan Yamoah
Global News
August 9, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The emerald ash borer is an invasive Asian beetle that has made its way to the Maritimes. With no natural predators, the small green beetles are now wiping out ash trees along river banks and in city centres. “We could lose all of the ash trees which are millions and millions of ash trees throughout eastern Canada,” said Donnie McPhee, a forest genetics technician with the Canadian Forest Service. …The national tree centre is looking to collect seeds from different regions throughout Canada for conservation purposes. The tricky part is finding trees in seed. “Ash only come into seed every five to seven years, but when it is in seed we want to [be] out there making sure we’re making collections and then storing them at our facility,” said McPhee. Once the seeds are found and stored they will be replanted as deceased ash trees are taken down.

Read More

OSU’s McDonald Forest was meant to benefit students, not well-to-do

By Jim Geisinger, executive vice president, Associated Oregon Loggers
The Oregonian
August 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A July 27 Oregonian/OregonLive article (“Majestic Douglas fir stood for 420 years. Then Oregon State University foresters cut it down”) excoriated the Oregon State University College of Forestry for its alleged mismanagement of the college’s McDonald-Dunn forest. The issue was the harvesting of a 15.7 acre unit of mature forest, including a 420-year-old tree. The 15.7 acre unit generated more than $420,000 for the college to fund its budget. The story by reporter Rob Davis quoted a local retired high-tech executive who enjoys jogging in the forest and an ex-OSU professor Norm Johnson, one of the architects of the Northwest Forest Plan, who criticized the college’s management practices. But there is a little background information The Oregonian failed to address that I think is very important. OSU’s McDonald-Dunn College Forest was created by a substantial private contribution from Mary McDonald in 1927 to the Oregon Agricultural College. 

Read More

Elk can be just as good at avoiding cougars and wolves as they are at hiding from hunters, study shows

By Brett French
Billings Gazette
August 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Elk are crafty creatures. Just ask any elk hunter. The big animals will hide in thick timber where a shot is impossible during the day, and then wander out into wide open meadows to feed at night when hunting isn’t allowed. The tactic may be frustrating for hunters, but it’s life-preserving for elk. …Now a recently published study …shows that elk use much the same behavior to avoid mountain lions and wolves. “It’s really a testament to elk as a species and how well they can manage risk,” Stahler said. Mountain lions are known to inhabit rough, rocky, timbered terrain, but they mainly hunt at night. Wolves are more likely to hunt in open country in the early mornings and evenings. By spending days in the timber and nights in the open fields, elk are more likely to avoid being eaten by two of their main park predators.

Read More

Fighting fire with fire underused in US West despite goals

By Brian Kelley
The Associated Press in the Independent Record
August 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — The thick scent of smoke hung in the midday air when a trail along the Kings River opened up to an ominous scene: flames in the trees and thick gray smoke shrouding canyon walls. Firefighters were on the job. In fact, they had started the blaze that chewed through thick ferns, blackened downed trees and charred the forest floor. The prescribed burn — a low-intensity, closely managed fire — was intended to clear out undergrowth and protect the heart of Kings Canyon National Park from future wildfires that are growing larger and more frequent amid climate change. Overcoming public fears by teaching about “good smoke, bad smoke, out-of-control fire and prescribed fire” is just one hurdle before firefighters can put match to kindling, Mohler said.

Read More

Salvaged lumber sales slumping after devastating wildfires

By Matt Jordan
Fox News 26
August 9, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Medford, Ore — While fire crews are hard at work on this summer’s wildfires, a new issue is emerging in the land scarred by fires in previous years. “We’ve got to speed up the process, it’s horrible,” said David Schott with the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association. The devastation from forest fires often lingers long after the smoke has cleared. “At some point, as time goes by, the wood deteriorates to the point where it’s not useable,” said Schott. …That was the plan for more than 4,000 acres of the 191,000 acres burned in the Chetco Bar fire in the Rogue River Siskiyou National Forest last year. This summer that plan has seen little support from the timber industry it relies on. …The salvage process on the Chetco Bar Fire was slowed by low snow levels, government furloughs and environmental regulations.

Read More

Despite habitat protection, endangered owls decline in Mount Rainier National Park

BY Balmiya Osana
Itzagoal365
August 10, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

When the Northern Spotted Owl was protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1990, the primary threat to the species was the loss of the old-growth forest it depends on. However, new research published in The Condor: Ornithological Applications shows that the Northern Spotted Owl population in Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park has declined sharply in the past two decades despite the long-term preservation of habitat within the park. The culprit? The spread of Barred Owls, a closely related, competing species that has moved into Spotted Owls’ range from the east. Biologists have seen Barred Owls in Spotted Owl territories within the national park more and more frequently since Spotted Owl surveys began in 1997. For their new study, Oregon Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit’s Anna Mangan, the National Park Service’s Tara Chestnut, and their colleagues analyzed two decades’ worth of data from these surveys. 

Read More

Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Chopping down and burning our forests for electricity is not a climate solution

By Mary Anne Hitt, Sierra Club and Danna Smith, Dogwood Alliance
The Hill
August 10, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Addressing the climate crisis has finally become a major national priority for the public this election season, but that’s also prompted troubling discussions in the energy sector and on Capitol Hill about increasing the use of biomass energy, or burning plant materials like wood, to produce electricity. We need to set the record straight on this: chopping down our forests and burning them for electricity will not reduce carbon pollution and will actually exacerbate the climate crisis. The best course of action is to dramatically build out our clean energy resources, like solar, wind, and energy efficiency, and retire all biomass and fossil fuel plants. Period. Forests should never be used to serve our electricity needs, they are too valuable as “carbon sinks” – sucking carbon out of the atmosphere as opposed to putting carbon into it. Additionally, biomass energy inevitably leads to deforestation. 

Read More

Heaven or hell? B.C. communities plan for an uncertain climate future

The Vancouver Sun
August 12, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

…The point is that as the world’s climate continues to change, every city, town and village in B.C. will be living its own unique version of heaven or hell. British Columbia has already warmed by 1.4 degrees C since 1900. …That may not sound like much… but the combined effects of higher temperatures, changing rainfall and reduced snowpack are having a noticeable affect on our best known species, such as Fraser River sockeye and Western red cedar. So, municipal governments are looking into the future with varying degrees of unease. …The City of Kelowna is also looking to the past for a solution to the most pressing threat to its future. …In partnership with the province and First Nations, about 10 square kilometres of forest will be thinned to create a fuel break intended to prevent the kind of high intensity fires that plague the Interior.

Read More